A note on pro/anti-shipping, curating your space, and harassment

Hi folks!

There’s been a lot of new people joining the fandom over the last couple of months, which is great. It might not be obvious to them, however, that there’s been a bit of Fandom Drama over the past year and a half, of the kind which can suddenly flare up again in ways that make no sense if you don’t know the history behind them.

I’m not going to get into the personal side of it here, but this is just a gentle reminder:

Arguments on the internet have a way of becoming disproportionately extreme and violent.

If you have strong feelings one way or the other about pro vs anti shipping, please make the effort to curate your own online space, for your own comfort and safety and that of others.

That means checking people’s blog headers / carrds / DNIs / abouts and minimising your interaction with them if appropriate. I also suggest putting something like ‘pro-shipper’ or ‘anti’ in your own blog header.

Whatever your feelings, remember too to be wary of ‘call-out posts’ couched in exaggerated emotive language. This is true even if they come from / have been reblogged by somebody you trust. Outrage is addictive, and very few people stop to fact-check a post that confirms their own biases.

Remember too that harassment, anon hate, and threats/‘kill yourself’ jokes are never okay.

My blog header links to my main, where I have a page explaining my stance on the matter. But in brief, here’s my position.

That said: This blog is meant to be a resource for all of the fandom, relatively impersonal. I don’t mind antis reblogging or using what I’ve collected here, but I will not directly respond or interact.

Reminder that @junkyard-gifs is me. As I say, I have no problem with that blog being used as a resource by people who dislike or disagree with me. That's what it's there for: to be a centre of information and conversation for anybody who’s interested.

But on my main, I do go to considerable effort to avoid interacting with people who aren't comfortable with the 'pro-ship' label, and I'd appreciate the same courtesy in return. I will do my best to make everybody comfortable, but I can't be the only one putting in that effort: you are ultimately responsible for your own boundaries online.

Ok just for curiosity reasons

I genuinely hate to say this but please reblog if you hit the like button for a larger sample size thank you <3

the results are SO FRICKING FUNNY

where is the 'slow mass migration from LJ back in the day' option

Dad's getting so chonky to cover his giant babies that he's slowly turning into a chicken

he will sit on all. the. babes.

Ok so I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole of researching period food & recipes, and,,,,

excuse me medieval people but what the fuck

there is a German cookbook, 14th century, where almost every recipe is titled "eine gute speise" ("a good food"), with notable exceptions such as "das ist auch gute" ("this is also good").

don't ask me how many different spellings Anglo-Norman (the variant of French spoken in late-medieval England) had for 'avec' ('with').

you realize that now, i have to ask >:}

over ninety

oh, and re. that last note, od (from Latin apud):

Ok so I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole of researching period food & recipes, and,,,,

excuse me medieval people but what the fuck

there is a German cookbook, 14th century, where almost every recipe is titled "eine gute speise" ("a good food"), with notable exceptions such as "das ist auch gute" ("this is also good").

don't ask me how many different spellings Anglo-Norman (the variant of French spoken in late-medieval England) had for 'avec' ('with').

you realize that now, i have to ask >:}

over ninety

Ok so I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole of researching period food & recipes, and,,,,

excuse me medieval people but what the fuck

there is a German cookbook, 14th century, where almost every recipe is titled "eine gute speise" ("a good food"), with notable exceptions such as "das ist auch gute" ("this is also good").

don't ask me how many different spellings Anglo-Norman (the variant of French spoken in late-medieval England) had for 'avec' ('with').

Fuck that post going around saying "you can have coffee in your story without justifying it :) you don't need to explain everything :)" I want, no, I DEMAND a fully researched ethnobotanical paper on every single food item in your work, if you don't explain to me where did potatoes come from in your fantasy setting or don't explain how the industry of coffee works over interstellar distances with full detail you are doing things wrong and I personally hate you and I hate your stupid story, fuck you

Why are your stupid little wizards and knights eating potato stew in your dumb European middle ages fantasy world. Where did they get potatoes from. Where is the center of domestication of potatoes, do you have a fantasy Andean civilization? What are the social and economic consequences of having such a calorie rich crop in cold climates. I don't care about "themes" or "enemies to lovers with found family", I didn't ask about that. Where does your idiot space captain gets their shitty coffee from. Is it imported from Earth? Are there coffee growing worlds? Is it an alien species replacement with the same name? What are the social consequences of that? Don't try to change the subject, I'll stop pointing the gun when I want, I'm trying to have a conversation here,

gold in them there tags

tolkien: YOU CAN'T HAVE A SANTA CLAUS WITHOUT CHRIST lewis: hold on let me just... there tolkien: tolkien: what did you do lewis: lion jesus tolkien: lewis: lion jesus 🥳

I can totally hear this cat tuning the guitar while the children find a good place to sit. 

I like the implication here that the other cats can play guitar, they’re just not as good

[ID: a drawing of an orange cat sitting on the stairs in front of a door, playing a guitar. there are five children sitting around her, looking at her. most of the drawing is black line art on white background, only the cat and the guitar are colored.

under the drawing is text that reads: she was the only cat in the neighborhood that was any good at guitar. so naturally the kids would gather and listen each afternoon. end ID]

Just as a reminder: setting public or private buildings and tramways on fire is illegal. Just so you know.

you might want to use this mode of communication going forward

Right sorry.

You know what let's do it the french way and yes by that I mean let's bring Louis de Funès IN!

new announcement même template just dropped!

i can't watch movies containing naval warfare for the same reason some horse lovers can't watch historic war movies where horses get shot

yes, i know the cannonballs aren't real. yes, i understand the ships are only pretending to sink. and yet, I am distress

Don't worry! The boats just turn into submarines when the sink! They don't actually take any damage, they just travel underwater to get a snack for being such good boats!

logically i know this, but it's still reassuring to hear someone say it out aloud

And! When they do a really really really good job they are given boat belly rubs! and an extra warm boat bath! I am glad I could be of help to reassure you my friend!

why do we praise boats like this boats are an invasive species and danger to the ocean and all of its natural wildlife like sharks and shipwreaks

okay wow that is a MASSIVE generalization, the boat genus has evolved over thousands of years and consists of hundreds of subspecies many of which are perfectly capable of living as part of a balanced aquatic ecosystem. boats aren't automatically evil just because *you personally* think they're big and scary.

@is-the-boat-video-cute your professional opinion?

Rating: Cute!

While there are invasive boat species (see: most species of yacht), most species of boat are fully acclimated to their environment!

this is my favourite genre of Tumblr post

what can i say tumblr loves shipping

#the last line really helped the whole bit sink in

I had an interesting night last night

I’m so glad I have tumblr gold so I can view this post

Tumblr gold users rise up

can confirm, I signed up for tumblr gold ten years ago and I can see all the images in this post

if you have an android phone get newpipe

thank me later.

newpipe is:

this is not sponsored newpipe just absolutely fucks

newpipe also has a grade A privacy rating on tosdr.org, in contrast to youtube’s grade C

yo it also works on tablets!!! just installed it on mine and the screen fits👍

I was wondering how it does on tablets! let me know if it is buggier or better on tablet than phone.

i think it’s p awesome that the first compasses invented in china were not magnetic, but in fact mechanical - the cart with the little wooden man pointing south was built in a way that no matter which way the cart turned, the little man would always point south

this is a model of what it looked like

how does this work? it’s so cool and confusing

the gears are aligned in a way to always turn the little man in the opposite direction as the cart at the same rate of rotation. so if the man points at you, and you turn the cart clockwise 90 degrees, the man will be turned counterclockwise 90 degrees, and still be facing you. if you turn the cart counterclockwise 90 degrees, the man will be turned clockwise 90 degrees, and still be facing you

as for how they got the cart to point south to begin with, that goes into fengshui and cardinal direction geomancy. but long story short, the workshops that built these carts would have their front doors facing south to begin with (using the sun and the stars to figure out which way is south), so all they would have to do is build the cart facing that direction, and the little man will always point south

thank you!

so basically never pick this thing up unless you put it down facing EXACTLY the same way as it was before.

It's actually only recently that I discovered what "the exception that proves the rule" actually means, and the more I think about it, the weirder it is that for so long, I just accepted the way most people (incorrectly) (including me before now) use that phrase.

People tend to use it to basically mean, "I have a freebie to reject one (1) example that would otherwise weaken my point, and act like it actually strengthens my point." If I say, "X is always Y," and someone gives an example of a case where X is not Y, I can just nod sagely and say, "Ah, but that's the exception that proves the rule," and everyone just accepts that that's A Thing.

That... makes no sense! Being proven wrong about something being universal doesn't somehow make you more right.

And the REASON it doesn't make sense is: *That's not what 'exception that proves the rule' means.*

"The exception that proves the rule" means that if someone has gone out of their way to make an official exception to a rule, it indicates that the rule exists in the first place, even if we don't have direct evidence of the rule. This can be particularly useful in, for example, the study of history. If you unearth some ancient tablets that say, "Let it be here decreed that on festival days, men shall be permitted to approach the Temple of the Goddess without covering their heads," that's evidence that a man going to that particular temple without covering his head wouldn't normally be allowed. Maybe we haven't found the tablet yet that says that. Maybe this civilisation never even bothered to write down that you can't go to the Temple of the Goddess bare-headed, because it was so obvious to them. But the fact that the exception exists means the rule must have existed.

'prove' means 'test'.

Latin (and modern Italian) 'probare/provare' : to try. So the exception tests the rule. It may or may not find it valid after testing.

Our modern English usage assumes that the trial has been successful ('I proved my dog's obedience skills today!'). But the phrase 'the exception proves the rule' preserves an older meaning, which is that the exception forces the rule to show itself to be valid.

anything that contains the phrase “secret BBC memo reveals” intrigues me automatically ngl but I want you all to know that as far as I can gather, the facts are even better than this headline

which is to say, this was part of an initiative in the early 1970s that not only featured marginalized groups on BBC programming, but made moves towards handing them editorial control – the BBC had to approve proposals, but after that, the station’s role was primarily to provide technical resources, facilities, and copyright handling. (another notable program under this initiative featured Black teachers discussing racism in the school system, and a link to that – plus discussion of the hurdles it faced – can be found here).

the program on trans experience was aired in 1973.

you can watch Open Door: Transex Liberation Group here (as well as other archived LGBTQ programming from BBC). 

1: hell yeah

2: David Attenborough was a childhood hero of mine and i’m glad to see he was always a champ

3: look at these related articles

There is smth enormously dispiriting seeing the race to save the submersible separated in the nyt headlines listing by barely a sentence from the greek mass migrant drowning scandal

If you feel powerless and demoralised in the face of news like the recent shipwreck, consider donating to reputable search-and-rescue charities like SOS Mediterranee, which operates two rescue ships to help prevent needless loss of life among migrants making the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean

These organisations are not a complete solution to the political problem of the migrant crisis in Europe, but they are a way of ensuring your money is spent on saving lives

Just a bunch of Useful websites - Updated for 2023

Removed/checked all links to make sure everything is working (03/03/23). Hope they help!

Sejda - Free online PDF editor.

Supercook - Have ingredients but no idea what to make? Put them in here and it’ll give you recipe ideas.

Still Tasty - Trying the above but unsure about whether that sauce in the fridge is still edible? Check here first.

Archive.ph - Paywall bypass. Like 12ft below but appears to work far better and across more sites in my testing. I’d recommend trying this one first as I had more success with it.

12ft – Hate paywalls? Try this site out.

Where Is This - Want to know where a picture was taken, this site can help.

TOS/DR - Terms of service, didn’t read. Gives you a summary of terms of service plus gives each site a privacy rating.

OneLook - Reverse dictionary for when you know the description of the word but can’t for the life of you remember the actual word.

My Abandonware - Brilliant site for free, legal games. Has games from 1978 up to present day across pc and console. You’ll be surprised by some of the games on there, some absolute gems.

Project Gutenberg – Always ends up on these type of lists and for very good reason. All works that are copyright free in one place.

Ninite – New PC? Install all of your programs in one go with no bloat or unnecessary crap.

PatchMyPC - Alternative to ninite with over 300 app options to keep upto date. Free for home users.

Unchecky – Tired of software trying to install additional unwanted programs? This will stop it completely by unchecking the necessary boxes when you install.

Sci-Hub – Research papers galore! Check here before shelling out money. And if it’s not here, try the next link in our list.

LibGen – Lots of free PDFs relate primarily to the sciences.

Zotero – A free and easy to use program to collect, organize, cite and share research.

Car Complaints – Buying a used car? Check out what other owners of the same model have to say about it first.

CamelCamelCamel – Check the historical prices of items on Amazon and set alerts for when prices drop.

Have I Been Pawned – Still the king when it comes to checking if your online accounts have been released in a data breach. Also able to sign up for email alerts if you’ve ever a victim of a breach.

I Have No TV - A collection of documentaries for you to while away the time. Completely free.

Radio Garden – Think Google Earth but wherever you zoom, you get the radio station of that place.

Just The Recipe – Paste in the url and get just the recipe as a result. No life story or adverts.

Tineye – An Amazing reverse image search tool.

My 90s TV – Simulates 90’s TV using YouTube videos. Also has My80sTV, My70sTV, My60sTV and for the younger ones out there, My00sTV. Lose yourself in nostalgia.

Foto Forensics – Free image analysis tools.

Old Games Download – A repository of games from the 90’s and early 2000’s. Get your fix of nostalgia here.

Online OCR – Convert pictures of text into actual text and output it in the format you need.

Remove Background – An amazingly quick and accurate way to remove backgrounds from your pictures.

Twoseven – Allows you to sync videos from providers such as Netflix, Youtube, Disney+ etc and watch them with your friends. Ad free and also has the ability to do real time video and text chat.

Terms of Service, Didn’t Read – Get a quick summary of Terms of service plus a privacy rating.

Coolors – Struggling to get a good combination of colors? This site will generate color palettes for you.

This To That – Need to glue two things together? This’ll help.

Photopea – A free online alternative to Adobe Photoshop. Does everything in your browser.

BitWarden – Free open source password manager.

Just Beam It - Peer to peer file transfer. Drop the file in on one end, click create link and send to whoever. Leave your pc on that page while they download. Because of how it works there are no file limits. It’s genuinely amazing. Best file transfer system I have ever used.

Atlas Obscura – Travelling to a new place? Find out the hidden treasures you should go to with Atlas Obscura.

ID Ransomware – Ever get ransomware on your computer? Use this to see if the virus infecting your pc has been cracked yet or not. Potentially saving you money. You can also sign up for email notifications if your particular problem hasn’t been cracked yet.

Way Back Machine – The Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites and loads more.

Rome2Rio – Directions from anywhere to anywhere by bus, train, plane, car and ferry.

Splitter – Seperate different audio tracks audio. Allowing you to split out music from the words for example.

myNoise – Gives you beautiful noises to match your mood. Increase your productivity, calm down and need help sleeping? All here for you.

DeepL – Best language translation tool on the web.

Forvo – Alternatively, if you need to hear a local speaking a word, this is the site for you.

For even more useful sites, there is an expanded list that can be found here.